4 Reasons The Rise Of The Religious "Nones" Is Good For Churches
As everyone knows, church attendance and involvement are decreasing. For some, this may lead to great discouragement or even panic. As more people claim to have no religious affiliation whatsoever increases, it's no surprise that many churches are in decline.
And while it saddens me to hear of people who do not know the love and grace of God, I'm not as discouraged by the increase of the religious "nones" as others may be.
Why? Because the Church now has a better understanding of who we need to love and share the grace of Jesus with. In fact, the rise of the religious "nones" is actually a good thing for churches. Here are four reasons why.
1. People going to church have a reason to be there
Very rarely do people attend a church service anymore because they feel like they are supposed to. The vast majority of people that now go either go because they want to, are interested in what Christianity even is, or are hurting in some way and are looking for hope.
People aren't looking for a show or even to be entertained, they're looking for something real. Not that those things should ever have been the goal anyway, but this now means that regardless of the size of your church or its budget, every local church has the opportunity to impact those they connect with.
While the reasons for coming may vary, the fact remains there is something driving most people to go to church. People aren't looking for the same old self-help material that they can find everywhere else. Fortunately for the Church, the Gospel is the very thing people actually need.
2. People want to know what the Bible actually says
Because our popular culture is growing increasingly secular, fewer people have any real exposure to the Bible. This means that many people's knowledge of the Bible is small to non-existent (and this is also true for many Christians as well).
People simply don't know what Scripture says. They might know or think that Jesus was a good guy, and perhaps can recite a verse or two, but that's about it.
This means many people find themselves interested in going to church simply out of curiosity of what the Bible actually says. This is why I believe that expositional preaching is the best mode of preaching in our post-Christian culture.
If you aren't sure what that means, generally speaking, there are two types of preaching: topical and expositional. Topical is where a preacher does a sermon series on a certain topic; be it marriage, finances, forgiveness, etc. The preacher will take different verses and passages and put them together to show what Scripture says about a topic.
Expositional preaching is where a preacher preaches through a book of the Bible (or a long passage of Scripture) continuously until they get through all of it. For example, in 2019 New City Church (where I lead) spent almost the entire year preaching through the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians. You can read my thoughts on how that went here.
Anecdotally, I always get way more feedback from sermons where I am preaching through books of the Bible than when I am preaching in a topical series. And interestingly, the more difficult the text we are looking at that day, the more positive comments people generally have.
Many of these comments include things like "I had no idea the Bible said that" or "that was so interesting, I'm learning so much about 1 Corinthians (for example) that I had no idea about before."
Why? Because people want to know what the Bible says. And Christians want to know how it applies to them and how they can faithfully live their faith out.
As our culture's Biblical literacy drops, our churches have an even greater opportunity to make an impact on people's lives.
3. Churches can (and should) call their people to something
Because many that still attend and are part of a church do so because they want to, churches have a great opportunity to call their people to the mission of following Jesus. It's never been good for churches to be full of apathetic or cultural "Christians" who only go because everyone else is going.
We need people willing to follow Jesus in our workplaces, schools, families, and everywhere we go. In order for our churches to be healthy and thriving, it needs people to serve and give and support what God is doing through that church.
At the end of the day, Jesus is and will always be King regardless of what we do. It's one of the reasons why I'm not worried about the state of the Church in America. He simply invites us to join him, and the local church is the best way to do that.
If people are showing up, it's because they want to know Jesus and be used by Him. The local church should be and is the best way for people to take their next steps towards that end.
4. Churches can stand out for their mission
As our culture's view of Christianity and churches decreases, it gives our churches more of an opportunity to stand out as beacons of light, hope, and encouragement in our communities. As people are more apt to assume churches are either unhelpful or even bad for our society, it allows churches to make an even bigger statement when we love and serve our communities because no one expects it.
For example, one of the best things we do at New City Church is our $5 Give Club. We invite our people to give an additional $5 on top of their regular offering each month. We then take that money and give it to a local family or non-profit in our area. The best part is we also interview the recipients and surprise them with a check at the end of the video (you can watch our $5 Give Club videos here).
Our people love it, and we even have non-Christians who give to our Give Club. People who generally speaking think the church cannot be trusted with money are giving a church they don't belong to money because they are trusting the church to make a positive impact with it.
These are the types of opportunities the Church has in a culture that easily forgets the great contributions local churches make in every community they are in.
The Church isn't perfect, but it can make a great impact
No one is perfect, and because each church is made up of imperfect people, there are no perfect churches. But the good news for us is imperfect people are who God in his grace still uses. Although I still have hopes for changes in the future of the Church I would like to see take place, the Church can still (and does) make a great impact today.
As people continue to turn their back on the Church, followers of Christ have a great opportunity to show the world that we exist for how we can love and serve them no matter how far from God anyone may be.
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